GNLM 05-04

Fully shielded cable for further protection against external RF and EMI

Ferrite encased copper conductors

Drain wire

Thanks again for your prompt and generous help in obtaining the cables.

Some initial and interesting results from trying out the different configurations.

I decided that while I had the opportunity I would test the various lengths, thicknesses and connectors in applications other than Hi Fi.

The first experiment was to take three new identical Sony 42" "LCD TV's with factory settings, two W series and one XBR all fed simultaneously from the same high quality HDMI source and see if a GNLM 05/04 1.5 m cable with the silver rhodium WattGate IEC connector made any discernible difference to picture quality.The results were surprising to me. The W series panels had obviously poorer contrast and less accurate colours than the XBR series when fed from a Sony Blu Ray demonstration disk at 1080p. Both W series panels had similar picture quality. Doing nothing other than replacing the standard power cable with a GNLM 05/04 1.5m cable with the silver rhodium WattGate IEC connector the picture on the W series panel improved to the point where it was much closer to the XBR panel than the reference W series panel. Contrast, especially black levels and colour accuracy were very noticeably better. Out of curiosity I swapped the generic HDMI cable with a reference grade Sony HDMI cable and the picture quality became indistinguishable between the XBR and W series TV. The observers were all very experienced in setting up and calibrating home theater systems and went from very skeptical to flabbergasted during the experiment. All the conversations about the signal being digital and power cables being irrelevant were silenced by the evidence of their own eyes.The net result was that less than $500 worth of cable closed the picture quality gap between TVs that were over $2000 apart in price.

The second experiment was to try the cables on electric guitar amplifiers.

Three different professional guitarists played the same guitar and top of the line Marshal tube based amplifier stack trying repeatedly the standard power cord, 05/2.5 and 05/04 2m cables both fitted with silver rhodium WattGate IEC connectors. The difference was unambiguous and immediate. Both EUPEN cables immediately improved the frequency response and clarity of the amplifier. It literally sounded as though a high quality tweeter had been added to the cabinet and the bass augmented. This was not a subtle change and all the musicians immediately noticed and commented on the difference. What was surprising was that the difference in clarity and frequency response was still very apparent when playing with very high levels of distortion and effects employed to achieve an appropriate sound. One observation of note was that the 05/04 cable sounded significantly better than the 05/2.5 in this experiment. During the experiment the various power cables were not plugged into a wall outlet but into a very low cost 10m extension cord!

I do not think there is a big market for the power cables with amplified instruments. One of the three guitarists wanted to purchase a cable for himself but all said that $200 was a "huge" amount to the average musician. I personally was very surprised at how much improvement the cables made in this application. Conversely every Hi Fi enthusiast I have loaned a cable to has not wanted (refused, forgotten etc.) to return them and have talked about immediate major improvements in sound and can they buy one or many.

I have not yet had an opportunity to compare the Wattgate and conventional silver plated connectors or 1.5m vs 2m cables. The 05/04 cable is significantly better than the 05/2.5 of the same length in some applications, perhaps because there is more ferrite in the construction.

I will also be trying the cables combined with various power filters, voltage regulators, Blu Ray Players and Sony PS3's. I will let you know what I find.